Contents

Maria Furtwängler-Burda is a daughter of architect Bernhard Furtwängler and actress Kathrin Ackermann, great-niece and step-granddaughter of conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, and granddaughter of politician Katharina von Kardorff-Oheimb. She has two older brothers, David and Felix. She was given her first movie role, for which she earned a bike, at the age of seven in Zum Abschied Chrysanthemen, produced by her uncle Florian Furtwängler. Her mother taught her acting and she later took acting classes in Germany and other countries.[citation needed]

On 8 November 1991 Maria married billionaire publisher Hubert Burda (born 1940), the youngest son of publishers Franz Burda and Aenne Burda, and CEO of Hubert Burda Media, an international media group, which publishes more than 180 magazine titles, including many fashion magazines.[1]

They have two children, Jakob (born 1990) and Elisabeth (born 1992).[citation needed]

In the mid-1990s Furtwängler decided to pursue her television career. For more nearly twenty years she has been acting in German television series and productions such as the Tatort series, as a Hanover-based police detective Charlotte Lindholm since 2002, the successful television movies Die Flucht, and Die Schicksalsjahre and cinema production The weather inside – Das Wetter in geschlossenen Räumen.[citation needed]

For her work in Tatort and Die Flucht Furtwängler was honored with Germany’s most important award in the field of acting. With the movie The weather inside she was honored with the award for best actress at the 2morrow festival in Moscow and is already nominated in the preselection of Deutscher Filmpreis (German film prize). The film had his grand opening on 7 April 2016 at the German film festival in New York City.

Furtwängler is also planning to become more active as a film producer.[citation needed]

Since its inception in 2005, Furtwängler has been actively involved in the Burda-sponsored Digital Life Design (DLD) conference series. She annually hosts a joint Burda/DLD networking reception at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

In 2010 Furtwängler founded the MALISAhome in the Philippines. For the ONE Campaign, she became a goodwill ambassador for Women, Girls and Child Health. In 2015 Furtwängler signed an open letter, which the ONE Campaign had been collecting signatures for; the letter was addressed to ChancellorAngela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively.[1] Also in 2015, she interviewed Merkel on development policy issues for the Chancellor’s weekly podcast.[2]

In November 2013, Furtwängler met Eve Ensler in Berlin and got inspired by her to get more involved in ending violence against women and girls also in Germany. She is particularly interested in the role of the media in perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes. She has been inspired by the Geena Davis Institute and by the Women’s Media Center in the US.[citation needed]

On International Women’s Day 2016, Furtwängler supported the call of UN Women's German National Committee for a reform of the German legislation on sexual violence (asking for a law that is based on the “no means no” - consent principle, which is currently not the case in Germany). Also on International Women’s Day 2016, she co-authored an op-ed with the German Minister for family, older people, women and youth, Manuela Schwesig, highlighting the need for a stronger sexual violence law and for an end to stereotyping of women and men, particularly in the media.[citation needed]